The recipe here, however delicious, is not the real story, its the
baking process that is intriguing. We spent a few days in a Garifuna village (read about
the Garifuna people) called Hopkins full of people beaming
with ready smiles and full of pride in the richness of their culture if not their material
wealth.

Sarita the "Sweet Bun Lady" as she
is known to everyone in town is no different. She has kept alive a baking
tradition begun by her great-grandmother and when we showed up with
cameras and lots of curiosity, she was only too happy to let us watch
and learn.

She makes a yeast dough with the standard flour, butter, sugar and eggs and flavors it
with local allspice and a little cinnamon, but the true magic happens when she bakes it.
The oven is a large steel barrel cut in half, and covered with a piece of corrugated
roofing. The heat comes from a fire made of coconut husks and driftwood that is burned
down to coals. She places the risen buns in the barrel, rests the barrel on pieces of
cinder block around the fire pit and puts the lid on top. The majority of coals are taken
out of the pit and put on top of the lid to top heat the oven so as not to burn the
bottoms. 15 minutes later, sweet, fragrant and perfectly golden brown rolls are taken out
and placed on a table to cool. They dont last long as people seem to come out of the
woodwork to plunk down 50 cents and "get em while dey hot, man!"

Ingredients:

3 lbs. pastry flour

a generous ½ lb. of sugar

3/4 stick of butter

1 egg

enough water to form dough

1/2 packet of yeast

½-3/4 tsp. allspice

½ tsp cinnamon

Preparation:

Cream the butter, sugar and eggs in large bowl. Add spices. Dissolve yeast in a little
water and add to mix. Stir in flour slowly and add tablespoons of water to form dough.
Knead for ten minutes and place in greased bowl in a warm place. Let rise for an hour and
knead again for 5 minutes. Form into 12 inch long "snakes", of slightly more
girth at one end. Take that end and start rolling the snake around it in concentric
circles. Place rolls on a cookie sheet to rise for another hour. Bake in your own back
yard oven or at 375+ in your oven for 15 minutes or until deep golden brown.

The words "fish balls" dont impart much glamour
to this wonderful dish, so I used a little artistic license. Not that
"dumplings" is much better, but when writing about food, its all semantics
and esthetics. Something pretty to your palate must also sound pretty to your ears. And
although the preparation is essentially like meatballs, the experience of dining on them
is sublime.

This one actually comes from Tobacco Caye in Belize, but variations can be found all
over the Caribbean. I would classify it as Creole or Garifuna cuisine rather than Latin.

The dumplings are egg-sized and they come in a generous portion of soup broth and are
served with tortillas or bread. They are slightly spicy and sweet due to the coconut and
achiote paste seasoning, and the firm fleshed white fish and bread combine to make a
texture that is the perfect balance of meat-like density and cake-like consistency.

Roughly chop the fillets, and add to mixing bowl. Chop the old
bread and add it to fish. Drop in the eggs and spices and mix with your hands until all
ingredients are well combined. Form into large egg-sized balls and fry in enough oil so
that it covers the surface of the pan.

The soup is easy. Mix all the liquids together and heat.

Serve each person two or three dumplings in a bowl and ladle soup over them. Excellent
with warm tortillas or dense bread and cold beer.

This recipe is a testimonial to the old adage, in this case in
reference to roadside eateries in Central America, never judge a book by its cover, you
may be pleasantly surprised. I will tell you from the outset however that the daily fare
in Honduras is nothing to write home about. With the exception of the wonderful fruit,
its an uninspiring mix of refried beans, rice, eggs, tortillas, plantain fries,
leathery meat, and a few veggies. A standard plate of food will contain 4 or 5 of those
items with maybe two choices of meat. Its cheap, salty and fills you up when
youre very hungry.

We were sitting in a tacky beachside stand with Pepsi logos plastered on everything, in
the coastal town of Omoa, just over the border from Guatemala. On a Monday, with all the
weekend Honduran tourists back in the industrial city of 500,000 called San Pedro de Sula,
a 40 minute drive away, the beach town was empty. Even during the high season, on weekdays
this town is quiet. There was only one other table of diners.

You will find that these places only stock a couple of menu items during the week.
Its pointless to look at the menu. Just ask them what they have. Fried chicken and
"Sopa de Caracol" were the only options. JP, not knowing what caracol was, chose
the chicken. I decided to give it a try. It was an excellent choice. Large meaty chunks of
conch al dente in texture and sweet in flavor came in a soup of chicken broth, coconut
milk, garlic, chiles, cilantro and a pinch of fresh ginger and cumin. Diced tomatoes,
onions and carrots added extra flavors and textures. With a beer, warm corn tortillas and
meringue music on the stereo, despite the legendary Honduran sand flies feeding on me, it
was a fabulous meal.

Put bullion in stock pot on high heat, turn down to simmer once
it boils, add diced veggies, cover and let simmer for 10 minutes. In a pan, saute the
garlic, chiles and ginger in a little oil on medium heat until garlic turns translucent
(30 secs.) add conch meat and saute for 2 minutes and turn off heat. Add meat to stock pot
along with the coconut milk and cumin. When liquid begins to simmer, turn off heat, add
the cilantro and serve.

Utila Bay Island Honduras is the setting
for this one. If you step back 300 years you would be rubbing elbows with the original
Captain Morgan and his merry band of cutthroat pirates who holed out in Utila Bay. This
island was the staging grounds for raids on Spanish forts and galleons up and down the
coast of Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua. Abundant rumors of buried or sunken treasure
are surely apocryphal but there is a different variety of leftover Spanish loot that you
should be able to get your hands on with ease, the golden flesh of mangos. People tell me
that the mango is not indigenous to Central America, that it was brought by the Spaniards
and proliferated. On the island of Utila alone you will find 15 different varieties, one
of the broadest selections in the world, all are fabulous.

This recipe comes to from an ex-pat Idahoan and a former legend in the Bay Area named
Dave Ayarra who stumbled onto the island some five years ago on a treasure hunt of his
own. All good fusion chefs worth their salt know an opportunity when they see one and this
recipe almost didnt need to be discovered, it spoke to him. A puree of overripe
mangos laced with thyme, ginger, sherry, garlic, a twist of lime and a touch of chile de
arbol ladled over a whole chicken and baked to the color of the late afternoon sun. The
chicken juices infuse the mango sauce pooled in the baking pan and is spooned over each
serving. I imagine that Captain Morgan, with a ships hold full of salt-cod and moldy
potatoes, would have traded a chest full of doubloons for a plate-full.

Ingredients:

one whole chicken

4 medium sized mangoes

1 to 2 tsp. dried thyme

3 to 4 tblsp. sherry

2 cloves minced or crushed garlic

salt and pepper to season chicken

Preparation:

Season the chicken with salt and pepper, place in roasting pan.
Peel mangoes, slice off flesh and puree in blender with thyme, garlic and sherry. Ladle
over chicken and bake at medium heat.

In all art, classic forms and pure elemental design are the
foundations upon which all subsequent works are built and judged. However, creative local
visionaries, influenced by unique regional heritage, are the ones who push the artistic
envelope and become the defining pop icons. Cuisine is no different. Classic French,
Italian, Asian and Indian cuisine will always be revered, but fusion cuisine will inherit
the earth.

David Ayarra is the best chef on the island of Utila. Among the standard grill houses,
latin comedores, and eclectic euro cafes, Daves Stingray Grill stands alone.
Its diverse and multi-lingual flavors turn rustic and hearty fresh fish steaks,
local produce, beef and poultry into vibrant savory dining experiences . Take a look at
his background and you understand. His grandfather ran the Hiawatha Hotel in Hailey Idaho,
where local big game and southwestern ingredients met European savoir faire and was served
to Hemingway, Clark Gable and other Hollywood high rollers. Dave himself cut his teeth
cooking in Idaho, moved to San Francisco, apprenticed with an Austrian Grand Chef, then a
Chinese wok master, and then embarked on a stint as a legendary caterer of his own design.
A long time dream to set up shop on a tropical island came true 5 years ago.

I walked into the kitchen one afternoon to see him pureeing a concoction in a food
processor that perfumed the air with an incredible multi-layered aroma, spicy, sweet,
pungent, smoky. The recipe had come to him all at once in a vision he told me. Praise
divine intervention! Praise prawns, julienne veggies and coconut milk and the thick spice
paste elixir that bonds them all together!

All the spices and ingredients in this one are locally grown, if not on the island of
Utila itself, on mainland Honduras. Thai, Sri Lankan and Indian curries move over, a sassy
new sister has arrived. Charred jalapenos and cherry chile peppers and capsicum (bell)
peppers pureed with mango form the bulk of this paste. The seasonings are smoky, spicy,
earthy and sweet: pan toasted cumin seeds, black peppercorns and coriander seeds mixed
with pan roasted garlic, pounded cilantro root, oregano, ginger, lime peel and a dash of
soya sauce. The resulting paste is viscous, the color of fecund jungle earth and when
defused into coconut milk, the layers of flavor that pass over your tongue develop in
stages like a Polaroid. Serve with warm weather and very cold beer.

three root sections of cilantro plant (only the bulb, minus tendrils and
stalk)

1 knuckle of ginger

pulp of one large ripe mango

1/4 cup oil

1 ½ tblsp. soya sauce

peel of ½ lime

salt to taste

Curry Preparation:

Char the three types of peppers over open flame until the skin
blisters. Cut out the seed pods. Roast garlic cloves with skin on in cast iron pan. Toast
the cumin seeds, peppercorns and coriander when garlic is nearly done. When the seeds
begin to pop, add the oregano and take off the heat. Pound the cilantro root with a flat
knife. Peel the garlic and add with all above ingredients to processor along with the
mango, ginger, oil, soya, lime and salt. Puree.

Saute the mixture over low flame until the oil begins to separate from the paste and it
gives off a rich aroma. Look at the next stage.

Prawns and Veggie Saute Ingredients and Preparation:

1 ½ lbs of veined "16-20" (medium) shrimp

1 cup cubed pineapple

3-4 cups julienne carrots, jalapenos, Napa cabbage etc.

2 cups rich coconut milk

*optional: season with fish sauce and Thai basil

Turn up the heat to med./low and add the vegetables and pineapple to the pan. A minute
later add the shrimp and the coconut milk. Adjust to desired thickness with corn starch
and either ladle over rice or serve in separate bowls.

In the poorer regions of Honduras yucca root is one of their staple crops.
It grows anywhere, leached out soil, muddy river banks even in sand. It’s
a lifesaver to those living on land where nothing else will grow.As well, it need not be germinated from seed; merely plant a stalk or
branch from another bush and roots will start to grow. Amazing plant.

Alas, yucca on its own fails to be a gustatory treat. In soups or boiled and
served with a sauce of some sort it is OK, like a highly glutinous potato.
It takes a bit of creativity and savvy to whip up anything special where the
main ingredient is yucca. So, check out this desert recipe.

Our good friend Dona Elma Bodden hails from a Miskito Indian village Raista,
on the inner shores of Laguna Ibans in the Mosquito Coast region. Her
kitchen is locally renowned. The tourists who come to tour the Raista
Butterfly Farm, the staff of the NGO Mopawi (internationally funded
non-profit group that helps with local development projects in indigenous
communities) and a few locals all dine there regularly. I asked what sort of
“cuisine” could possibly be made with yucca and she delivered. This is a
variation on pumpkin pie, dense, sweet, chewy and wonderfully flavored.

A fellow Epicurean adventurer recently regaled me with his favorite joke in
which the peculiar strengths and weaknesses of the European culinary
community are sorted by ethnicity.

The gist of the jest was that dining in Hell would merely consist of
shifting each into a role in Satan’s kitchen that emphasized its one
egregious shortcoming. Thus, the restaurant was replete with German wine,
French waiters, Italian cashiers and accountants and English cooks.

Not to denigrate an entire country, but many Honduran establishments have
combined the above into one package deal. A trip to your average roadside
comedor will fill you up without lightening your wallet, but you’ll get no
wine with your bad service, unsophisticated salty fare and creative
accounting on your bill.

So, when looking for a cheap savory meal take a tip from the Brits who look
to fish and chips as a bright star in a bleak landscape. The Garifuna-runrestaurants do it best with fresh catch of the day fried whole with
thick cut plantain fries, head and shoulders above spuds. Unlike in the UK
where deep frying is the only way to make pasty codfish and potatoes taste
good, the Garifuna begin with a head start. Red Snapper filets or smaller
ones fried whole come with half-ripe plantains, firm with a touch of
sweetness.

Ask around for a comedor (eatery) until you find what you’re looking for.
Serve with squirt of lime, liberal amounts of chile sauce and cold beer.

Heat oil on med-high until just starts to smoke. Fry the plantains first
until just brown on edges. Season fish with salt and pepper and dredge the
fish in corn starch/meal before dipping in batter. Fry until deep golden
brown.

The
cooking technique for this one is ubiquitous all over Central America. The
meat turns out tender and flavorful. It falls off the bone easily into your
tortilla.

This
particular combination of flavors is the work, once again, of Dona Elma
Bodden, my favorite Miskita chef from the village of Raista in the Mosquito
Coast (see Yucca Pie). Stewed chicken is always
savory but in keeping with Honduran’s general tendencies toward mundane
cuisine with few spices etc., it’s rarely interesting. When you come
across a preparation with a distinct Caribbean pizazz like this one you take
notice.

It’s
simple rustic fare, but the meat flavored with coconut, garlic, peppers and
achiote is soulful. Serve it with coconut rice or tortillas.

Ingredients:

medium
sized chicken parts (legs, wings, breasts anything)

diced
garlic 2-3 cloves

diced
bell peppers

diced
chile peppers

diced
onion

salt,
pepper, dusting of cumin

achiote
paste or paprika optional

3/4—1
cup of coconut milk

heaping
tblsp. of vegetable lard

tblsp. of
sugar

Preparation:

In a
thick-bottomed, large stock pot over medium heat throw in the lard and sugar
and cook until it starts to boil and becomes the color of cafe au lait.
Season the chicken with salt, pepper and cumin. Add to pot. Throw in garlic,
peppers, onion, achiote and stir. Cover the pot and let simmer and stew for
15 minutes. Add the coconut milk and cook it down until the sauce thickens.
Serve